So a FB frenemy posts that she has "the e-mail." I check my box, no e-mail. And then, before I start to freak out, I come here- to read, to figure out the answers to my questions, and to laugh (the flux capacitor, made tea come out of my nose). I have done a lot of ticket lotteries, so am familiar with the angst.

Good luck to all!! And many thanks for the quick sharing of information, misinformation, terror, and well wishes. It makes me smile; much better than waiting alone.

Warmly,

Chazz

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.” George Washington Carver

Mine showed up at 2:11am, MST. Woot. If we can get 2 tickets out of the 30 losing entries, we have critical mass--enough drivers and fabricators on board to get our most essential contributions to the playa. The order we're queued in STEP is a whole other can of worms. Ugh. Given STEP odds, we're still working the local scene pretty hard for the two tickets.

Funny how every other email that was sent, including the JRS, was nicely formatted as a plain text email; however, for some reason, whoever composed this STEP notification email felt compelled to make it use HTML and an image.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

Got my e-mail too. The one thing that would be nice to know is whether it's

(a) "your location in the queue has already been determined, so please don't come try to crash our server at 11:59am desperately trying to be first in line"or(b) "when we say first come first served, we mean it, so you'd better take off from work on Friday afternoon as you try to punch your way through the digital mob on our server to get your spot."

AbundantChoice wrote:Got my e-mail too. The one thing that would be nice to know is whether it's

(a) "your location in the queue has already been determined, so please don't come try to crash our server at 11:59am desperately trying to be first in line"or(b) "when we say first come first served, we mean it, so you'd better take off from work on Friday afternoon as you try to punch your way through the digital mob on our server to get your spot."

Other than that, it's pretty self-explanatory.

"Please read all of these instructions carefully, then click the link below to begin the process of converting your original registration to a request for a place on the WANT list"

vargaso wrote:OK, just got my email, still not sure how the queue will be ordered, says my link to register won't open until March 2, not sure if that's how all STEP emails are, or if that indicates my place in the queue. Here's the text, sans the link:

...

Please read all of these instructions carefully, then click the link below to begin the process of converting your original registration to a request for a place on the WANT list. (NOTE: Your link will not be active until 12 noon (PST) Friday, March 2)

AbundantChoice wrote:Got my e-mail too. The one thing that would be nice to know is whether it's

(a) "your location in the queue has already been determined, so please don't come try to crash our server at 11:59am desperately trying to be first in line"or(b) "when we say first come first served, we mean it, so you'd better take off from work on Friday afternoon as you try to punch your way through the digital mob on our server to get your spot."

Other than that, it's pretty self-explanatory.

"Please read all of these instructions carefully, then click the link below to begin the process of converting your original registration to a request for a place on the WANT list"

Judging from the verbiage, I would say that it's the latter option.

It's really not very clear from that verbiage, but I did get confirmation that yes, we should be hitting refresh at 11:59, it's good ol' first-come first served.

This latest "interesting" implementation really brings it home that the BMORG is used to communicating via social experimentation, as in trickling out some information here, some there, withholding some, all in the hopes of controlling response. Well, it shouldn't be done that way anymore, in m opinion. Give people all the information they might need for an activity in one place (in this case, the email), and let them go forward in an informed manner. I honestly think they didn't make the first-come first-served aspect of the STEP queue explicit because they felt that would dampen people's fear, but of course it only generated uncertainty and questions.

I'm totally sympathetic to all the work the BMORG is doing and the pressure they're under, and I appreciate it all. Just offering some constructive criticism and countering the regulars' unending dismissals of valid questions people may have.

I clicked that link and got the successful message, but since I'm not a computer brain, I don't know if it actually has my info, or is just the screen that is linked to the person that hacked it. If it did somehow grab my info, I'm nervous that my info could be/will be scrubbed since I was in that site before the launch. Crap, that's what I get for being a curious clicker.

MedullaB wrote:Predict another epic fail - why would anyone sell their tickets through step when it puts them on the hook for the service fees.

because they can sell it RIGHT NOW and not need to wait until june/july/august when they have a ticket in hand. (and when the ticket transfer system opens up)

..and cuz the fees were like 3% or less of the total cost and really not a big deal.. (service fee was only $7 !!)

Just saying - 'Face value' in our community has usually included delivery/fees etc.

I do see your point about the convenience of immediate transfer of ownership (vs waiting till June), and that is a good motivator.

A suggestion to the Borg is to send an email out to all those who got tickets - "Due to the overwhelming demand for tickets and the need to setup non transferrable tickets for Step (holding at Will Call), we are implementing a process for you to register the name of the ticket owner over the next month which will be verified at the gate. This process will allow us to eliminate any scalped tickets after the deadline of March 31st (ticket registration deadline) and cancel any unregistered tickets to be fed back into our community. After this date, the ONLY way to transfer a ticket will be via Step."

At the gate, setup up a RANDOM screening of tickets (quicker processing).

@robrob - to what end? Your pal will now be able to register for tickets in that person's name, for an order that will be held in that person's name at the will call window, starting on Friday. Are they radically determined gifters?

Bounce530 wrote:I clicked that link and got the successful message, but since I'm not a computer brain, I don't know if it actually has my info, or is just the screen that is linked to the person that hacked it. If it did somehow grab my info, I'm nervous that my info could be/will be scrubbed since I was in that site before the launch. Crap, that's what I get for being a curious clicker.

That's the just the static HTML landing page that most likely will pop up after having completed the registration process. I'm sure the link in the email will be redirected to the registration form on March 2. So, no, they don't have your information. That was the point of having a bit.ly shortcut link intially, as to not expose the landing page. Agreed, it's not ideal, but it should work fine.